For many people living and working in the UK, Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) has traditionally been something they could work towards over five years. Under the new framework, the standard qualifying period will increase to ten years, although some applicants will remain eligible to settle considerably sooner.
The changes go beyond the length of residence required. Earnings, immigration history, English language ability and the type of visa a person holds will all play a greater role in determining when they can obtain permanent status.
The announcement also addresses several questions left unanswered by the original consultation, particularly the position of family members, care workers and people who are already partway through their immigration journey.
There is, however, an important distinction to make from the outset. The Government has confirmed its intended policy, but most of the new Earned Settlement requirements are not yet part of the Immigration Rules. The detailed legislation, commencement dates and operational guidance will follow.
What is Earned Settlement?
Earned Settlement is the Government’s new approach to deciding when someone should qualify for permanent residence in the UK. Currently, many applicants on qualifying work and family routes can obtain ILR after five years, provided they meet the conditions of their visa and the relevant settlement requirements.
The proposed framework retains lawful residence as an essential condition but places greater emphasis on a person’s circumstances during that period. The Home Office will assess applicants against requirements covering their immigration history, economic contribution and integration into British society. Some people will qualify after three or five years because of their earnings, occupation or immigration category. Others will need to complete ten years before applying, while certain breaches of immigration law or reliance on specified public funds may result in a much longer wait.
The Government received 204,667 responses to its consultation, which ran from November 2025 to February 2026. Following that process, it revised several elements of the original proposals, including the treatment of lower-skilled workers and dependent family members.
How long will it take to get ILR under the new rules?
The Government’s final response sets out four main settlement pathways. The applicable period will depend on the applicant’s visa category and whether they meet the conditions of a particular route.
Three years: higher earners and exceptional talent
Applicants who have earned at least £125,141 a year in three of the four years immediately before applying will be able to qualify for settlement after three years of eligible residence. A three-year pathway is also intended for the Government’s proposed Highest Talent Group.
This is particularly relevant to applicants on Global Talent and Innovator Founder visas. Both routes currently provide opportunities for accelerated settlement: Innovator Founder applicants may qualify after three years, while the Global Talent route provides three- or five-year pathways depending on the applicant’s circumstances. The new framework continues to recognise these categories, although the final scope of the Highest Talent Group remains subject to review following advice from the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC).
The Government has also specified that applicants relying on Global Talent or Innovator Founder permission for an accelerated route must have received their most recent grant of permission under the relevant route.
For now, it would be premature to assume that every applicant holding one of these visas will qualify under identical conditions.
Five years: higher-paid professionals and certain public service workers
A five-year settlement route will remain available to applicants who have earned at least £50,271 annually in three of the preceding five years.
This could include Skilled Worker visa holders whose salaries meet the higher earnings threshold. Certain public service occupations will also benefit from a five-year route, even where salaries fall below £50,271. The Government has published a list of eligible healthcare and education roles based on national pay scales. These include doctors, registered nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, social workers and teachers, among other specified occupations.
The distinction matters because not everyone employed in healthcare or education will automatically qualify. Eligibility will depend on the occupation covered by the rules, rather than simply working for a hospital, school or other public service organisation.
The five-year pathway will also remain available to eligible partners, parents and children of British citizens, as well as qualifying Commonwealth citizens applying under the UK Ancestry route.
Ten years: the new standard settlement period
Most other applicants will be subject to a ten-year qualifying period. For those relying on employment income to demonstrate their contribution, the framework requires earnings of at least £12,571 in five of the seven years immediately before applying.
A Skilled Worker earning £40,000, for example, may no longer qualify for ILR after five years simply by completing the usual residence period. Unless an exception applies, that person could instead face a ten-year route.
The Home Office has deliberately allowed applicants to rely on their strongest earning years. Someone who takes parental leave, temporarily reduces their hours or experiences a period of illness will not necessarily lose eligibility because their income falls below the threshold for a year or two. The published thresholds are linked to the relevant Income Tax and National Insurance thresholds, which means they may change in future.
Twenty years: immigration breaches and access to public funds
The Government has introduced a twenty-year route for applicants whose circumstances prevent them from qualifying sooner. Adults who commit specified immigration breaches, including overstaying or working contrary to their visa conditions, will generally face a twenty-year qualifying period. The framework also introduces restrictions concerning access to public funds. Applicants seeking to settle after three, five or ten years will generally need to show that they have not accessed specified public funds during the preceding five years.
Those who continue to receive such support may instead need to complete twenty years on a qualifying route. The Home Office has not yet published the full list of benefits covered by this requirement or all the exemptions and safeguards that will apply. The twenty-year pathway does not remove the other mandatory settlement requirements, and serious criminality may prevent an applicant from obtaining ILR altogether.
New requirements for permanent residence
Applicants will need to satisfy a set of mandatory conditions before their qualifying residence period can be considered. One of the most significant changes concerns criminal records. Under the new framework, adult applicants with a UK criminal record will be refused settlement, including where the record relates to certain non-custodial penalties. Relevant overseas convictions will also be considered, with discretion retained where conduct criminalised abroad would not constitute an offence in the UK.
Outstanding government debt will become another barrier. This includes qualifying debts relating to NHS treatment, unpaid tax, National Insurance and Home Office litigation costs. English language requirements are also increasing. From 26 March 2027, the required English language level for ILR will rise from B1 to B2 across a range of immigration routes.
Unlike most of the wider Earned Settlement framework, this change has already been incorporated into the Immigration Rules. The Life in the UK test will remain part of the settlement process. The Home Office has also confirmed that demonstrating English at C1 level will not provide a further reduction in the qualifying period. Existing exemptions for children, people aged 65 or over and applicants unable to meet certain requirements because of a qualifying physical or mental condition will continue.
The Government has also decided not to introduce an accelerated settlement route based on volunteering, despite considering it during the consultation.
Are you approaching your ILR application?
If you are already working towards settlement, it is worth reviewing your qualifying residence, visa history and income before the new rules take effect.
Goldman Solutions can assess your circumstances under the current framework and help you understand which announced changes may be relevant to your application.
What does Earned Settlement mean for Skilled Worker visa holders?
The changes are particularly important for employers sponsoring international staff and for Skilled Workers who expected to settle after five years. The current Skilled Worker route generally allows settlement after five years, provided the applicant meets the relevant residence, sponsorship and salary requirements.
Under Earned Settlement, completing five years on a qualifying visa will no longer be sufficient for every applicant.
Those who meet the £50,271 earnings threshold over the required period may retain a five-year pathway. Higher earners could potentially qualify after three years, while many workers earning below the higher-rate threshold will move to the ten-year route.
This is separate from the salary requirement for obtaining or extending a Skilled Worker visa. An employee may earn enough to maintain their sponsorship but still fall below the earnings threshold for accelerated settlement. For employers, that distinction could have practical consequences. Staff remaining on temporary immigration permission for longer may require additional visa extensions and continued sponsorship, with associated costs and compliance obligations.
One concession concerns Skilled Workers who entered the route before the salary changes introduced in April 2024. The Government has confirmed that relevant transitional salary arrangements will be extended until 2035, rather than ending in 2030 as previously planned. This should allow affected workers to continue extending their visas under the applicable transitional conditions while completing a longer settlement period.
The precise operation of these arrangements will need to be checked against the new Immigration Rules.
Special arrangements for care workers and public service employees
The treatment of care workers was one of the most contentious parts of the original consultation. The Government had considered introducing a fifteen-year settlement route for workers in occupations below RQF Level 6. Following consultation, it has dropped that proposal. Such workers will generally fall within the standard ten-year route, with the possibility of qualifying sooner where they meet the relevant conditions. For existing care workers, a more specific concession has been introduced.
Those who entered or switched into the care worker route before publication of the Immigration White Paper on 12 May 2025 will retain a five-year settlement pathway if they meet the applicable requirements.
These include genuine sponsored employment, compliance with visa conditions and annual earnings of at least £25,000, alongside the strengthened mandatory settlement requirements. Care workers who do not meet the conditions after five years will not automatically qualify for ILR. However, they will be allowed to apply for a further five-year Health and Care visa, restricted to genuine employment in the sector.
The Government has also acknowledged the difficulties faced by workers whose sponsors have lost their licences. From 1 February 2027, affected care workers will have up to 120 days to secure a new job offer, followed by a further 60 days to resolve their employment and immigration position.
There are also transitional protections for certain healthcare and education workers employed in occupations below RQF Level 6, including specified nursing auxiliaries and teaching assistants, who entered before the May 2025 White Paper. These are targeted concessions for existing workers, not permanent five-year settlement routes for everyone subsequently entering those occupations.
Will families still be able to settle together?
The Government has made substantial changes to its original proposals concerning dependent partners and children. Rather than requiring every adult dependant to demonstrate their economic contribution entirely independently, the final framework allows eligible couples to combine their earnings.
The minimum household income requirement will be £25,142 a year, twice the standard individual threshold. In practical terms, if one partner earns £30,000 while the other works part-time or takes time away from employment to care for children, the couple may still satisfy the minimum household contribution requirement.
This should not be confused with the separate financial requirements for obtaining or extending a family visa. Nor does the combined household threshold automatically satisfy the higher earnings criteria for an accelerated settlement route. Partners who arrive in the UK together will generally be able to apply for ILR at the same time, provided they have completed the necessary residence period and meet the relevant conditions.
Where one partner joins later, they will ordinarily need to complete the same qualifying residence period before settling. Children under 18 will continue to be able to settle with their parents. They will be exempt from the income, government debt, English language and Life in the UK test requirements, although relevant suitability rules will still apply.
Young adults aged 18 to 24 who retain their child-dependant status may also settle alongside their family. They will not need to meet the individual income requirement, but will generally be expected to satisfy the other mandatory conditions applicable to adults. The position changes at age 25. Someone who reaches that age before their family becomes eligible for settlement will normally need to establish an independent basis for ILR or move to another appropriate immigration route.
For families facing a longer qualifying period, the ages of dependent children and the timing of each person’s application will therefore require particular attention.
The closure of the ten-year Long Residence route
The decision to close the existing Long Residence route could have a substantial impact on international students, graduates and people who have spent years switching between different UK visas. Currently, the Long Residence route allows eligible applicants to qualify for ILR after ten years of continuous lawful residence. Time spent on certain temporary visas, including Student and Graduate visas, may count towards that period. Under Earned Settlement, the separate Long Residence route will close.
Time spent on temporary routes will no longer count towards permanent residence merely because someone has accumulated ten years in the UK. The excluded categories include Student, Graduate, High Potential Individual, Global Business Mobility, Youth Mobility and temporary worker routes. Time spent under the Ukraine Schemes will also not count towards the new qualifying period.
For example, a graduate who has spent three years studying in the UK and another two years on a Graduate visa should not assume that those five years will count towards their future ILR application after switching to Skilled Worker status. The Government will allow certain periods on qualifying long-term routes to be combined, but there will be restrictions. In particular, time spent on protection or human-rights routes will not be combined with work or family routes to complete the relevant qualifying period.
The precise closure date for Long Residence and any route-specific transitional arrangements remain to be confirmed.
New settlement rules for refugees
The Government has also confirmed a separate settlement framework for people granted refugee protection. Refugees admitted through designated safe and legal routes, including the UK Resettlement Scheme, will generally be able to qualify for settlement after five years.
Those granted protection after claiming asylum in the UK outside those designated routes will ordinarily move onto Core Protection, which carries a twenty-year settlement pathway.
A shorter route will be available to people who move into sustained work, education or training under the new Protection Work and Study arrangements. They may qualify after ten years on that route, although time previously spent on Core Protection will not normally count towards those ten years.
The Government also intends to impose an additional ten-year waiting period on people who entered the UK illegally. Depending on the route, this could produce settlement periods of twenty or thirty years. There is an important legal safeguard: the additional period will not apply where a refugee is protected by Article 31 of the Refugee Convention. The Home Office will publish further details of how this safeguard will operate.
Different English language and public funds requirements will apply to some resettled refugees, including those admitted under the UK Resettlement Scheme. The changes concern eligibility for permanent residence. They do not mean that a person who continues to require refugee protection will automatically lose the right to remain in the UK.
Which immigration routes will keep their existing arrangements?
Not every immigration category will move into the standard Earned Settlement system. The Government has confirmed that several existing commitments will be preserved. Hong Kong BN(O) visa holders will retain their five-year settlement route. Separate arrangements also remain for eligible members of the Armed Forces, Afghan schemes, certain legacy resettlement routes and the Windrush Scheme. The EU Settlement Scheme will remain outside the reforms.
Existing protections will also continue for eligible victims of domestic abuse, bereaved partners, children in local authority care and certain young people who have grown up in the UK. Some of these groups may nevertheless be subject to strengthened mandatory requirements where an exemption or specific safeguard does not apply.
Importantly, people who already hold ILR or settled status will not lose that status because of Earned Settlement.
Will the new ILR rules apply to people already living in the UK?
This is likely to be the most immediate concern for many current visa holders. The Government has not introduced a general exemption for people who entered the UK before the reforms were announced. Instead, settlement applications will ordinarily be assessed against the Immigration Rules in force when a decision is made, unless transitional provisions apply.
Consequently, someone who arrived in the UK expecting to qualify after five years could find that their qualifying period changes before they become eligible to apply.
The limited transitional measures announced so far principally concern defined groups of care, healthcare and education workers who entered before May 2025, together with existing commitments to specific protected categories.
For applicants approaching their original settlement date, the remaining uncertainty makes it particularly important to understand the current rules and monitor the implementation timetable.
When will Earned Settlement come into force?
There is no single confirmed commencement date for the full reform. Speaking in Parliament on 2 November 2026, the Home Secretary confirmed that the first changes would begin to be laid through the December Immigration Rules, with implementation taking place in stages during 2027.
Further changes and technical guidance may follow after that initial implementation. The Government has not yet published all the evidential requirements, the full definition of qualifying immigration breaches, or the safeguards relating to public funds. The separate increase in the English language requirement to B2 is already scheduled for 26 March 2027. Until each relevant change takes effect, the existing Immigration Rules continue to govern settlement applications.
What should applicants do now?
The right approach will depend on how far someone has progressed towards settlement and which immigration route they hold. Applicants who are close to becoming eligible for ILR should check their qualifying residence carefully and establish whether they can apply under the existing requirements. Any decision to apply must still be based on meeting the rules in force, rather than an assumption that a future policy change can be avoided.
Skilled Workers may want to review their salary history, particularly if their earnings have varied between tax years. Those considering Global Talent or Innovator Founder should examine whether their circumstances may support an accelerated pathway, while recognising that the final Highest Talent criteria have not yet been published.
For graduates, the closure of Long Residence raises questions about how previous years of study will be treated. Families should review the position of dependent partners and adult children, especially where their residence periods do not align.
Employers sponsoring international staff may also need to revise assumptions about the duration and cost of sponsorship.
The Government estimates that more than 500,000 people who might otherwise have qualified for settlement between 2026 and 2030 will become eligible later under the new framework. That is a substantial change, but it will not affect every applicant in the same way.
Frequently asked questions
Is ILR changing from five to ten years in the UK?
The Government has confirmed a ten-year standard qualifying period under Earned Settlement. However, three- and five-year routes will remain available for eligible applicants. The new standard period has not yet taken effect.
Can Skilled Workers still obtain ILR after five years?
Yes. Skilled Workers who satisfy the higher earnings requirements, or qualify under another eligible pathway, may still be able to settle after five years. Others may face the new ten-year standard.
Will Student and Graduate visa time count towards ILR?
Under the new framework, time spent on Student and Graduate visas will not count towards Earned Settlement. The existing ten-year Long Residence route, which currently allows certain temporary visa periods to count, is due to close.
Will the changes affect British citizenship?
The November announcement concerns settlement, not a complete reform of British nationality law. However, because ILR is generally an important step towards naturalisation, a longer settlement period may also delay when someone can become eligible for British citizenship.
How Goldman Solutions can help
The Government has now explained the broad structure of Earned Settlement, but the final Immigration Rules will determine how it operates in individual cases. For someone who is already established in the UK, the most useful starting point is a careful review of their current eligibility and how the new qualifying periods may affect their plans. For those considering relocation, settlement should form part of the discussion from the beginning. The choice between a work visa, Global Talent or an entrepreneurial route may have implications well beyond the initial visa application.
At Goldman Solutions, we advise international professionals, entrepreneurs, employers and families on UK immigration and long-term residence. Our team can review your existing position, identify the available settlement pathways and help you plan for the changes ahead.
Speak to our immigration team
Official sources
- Home Office: Earned Settlement consultation and Government response, 2 November 2026
- Home Secretary’s statement to Parliament, 2 November 2026
- Immigration Rules: March 2026 changes to English language requirements
This article reflects the Government’s position and the Immigration Rules as of 3 November 2026. Further rules and guidance are expected before Earned Settlement is fully implemented.
